Ask an Expert: Entrepreneurs, here's a lesson in innovation

— -- Q: We were wondering if you had any suggestions regarding how we could promote more innovation in our business. We own a small manufacturing plant and have down time that could be put to use — if we knew what to use it for. We, as partners, only have so many ideas. — India and Muhummad

A: I think the best way to answer your question is to share a tale I heard a few years ago that exemplifies how some companies unleash their people to innovate. What they do, you can do, too.

Here's the story: 3M is a company that truly innovates: It invented sandpaper in 1904, masking tape in 1925, transparent tape in 1930, electrical tape in 1945, surgical drapes in 1950, and synthetic running tracks in 1963.

But its an invention from the '70s I want to share with you today. In 1968, 3M research scientist Dr. Spencer Silver was doing some work regarding glue and in one of his experiments, Silver stumbled upon a unique substance: An adhesive that was gummy, not sticky, but it remained sort-of sticky even after it was repeatedly used. Silver knew that he had invented a highly unusual new substance, but the question was — what to do with it? A glue that didn't stick very well might have been considered a mistake at other companies, but at 3M it was something to explore.

And what is cool about 3M is that it gives its employees the room to do just that. 3M has a policy that allows everyone in the company to pursue what they call "15% time projects." That is, everyone at 3M is allowed to use 15% of their time to follow their muse and innovate. This policy has been in effect since 1948 and has resulted in products ranging from clear bandages to painter's tape that sticks to the edge of a wall to prevent paint bleed.

Maybe not surprisingly, this sort of policy has become a hot topic for innovative businesses. For instance, Google has a similar policy: It allows employees to use up to 20% of their time to innovate and think outside the box. Amazon has something similar, too.

You may want to do something comparable as well. After all, who knows what genius is inside some of your employees?

And it was this policy that allowed Dr. Silver to pursue his dream of finding some practical use for his non-sticky glue. Silver refused to simply let it fade away. So committed was he to his innovation that for the next several years, Silver gave seminars to his colleagues at 3M, extolling the virtues of this new adhesive. But still, no one at the company could find a good use for the adhesive.

That is, until 3M employee Art Fry had, what a 3M spokesman later called "a moment of pure 'Eureka.' " On the day in qustion, Mr. Fry was in his church singing in the choir when he became frustrated that the little pieces of paper he used to mark his place in his hymnal kept falling out. If only he had some sort of sticky bookmark.

And then it hit him: Dr. Silver's strange glue could make for a great bookmark!

Later at the office, attaching Silver's adhesive to the back of some notepaper, Fry created some sample bookmarks. Although Fry thought he was building a better mousetrap, it was only when he attached the sticky bookmark to a report, and wrote on it, that he realized that he had not created a bookmark at all.

According to Fry, it was then that he "came to the very exciting realization that my sticky bookmark was actually a new way to communicate and organize information." The gummy bookmark begat a sticky note.